Run-Down Forums

[Angelo Z]

Just out of curiosity, I've set out on a search on google to find post mile record attempts and attempts from the past after Hicham. So far I have found zilch. It has been 9 years and with thousands of elite middle distant runners and improving training sciences. Let's also say that there hasn't been one runner to even come within a 3:44 mile in the past 9 years. Why?Dan, you might mention rabbited races but then again, why? Take Alsn Webb for example, he ran in the 3:46 mile range but let's just make the standard recovery time 72 hours. If I were him I would give it another shot again and again, and again...Everyone else cares about getting that desired gold, but I only care about constantly trying to improve my mark. Even if it is not a rabbited race I would still aim for the world record. Forget about the traditional competition against another runner, I am up for the TIME.
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[Dan]

It has nothing to do with rabbited races in this case... I've tried explaining to you several times now the difficulty of targeting, let alone setting, world records. It's fallen on deaf ears thus far, so I won't bother trying again...

It will happen when the right athlete with the right circumstances comes along. Until then, you'll see a lot of people targeting personal records, not world records.

Dan
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[Angelo Z]

Excuse me for the grammar in my first post as that was written from an Iphone. Don't get the wrong idea, but I'm not that ignorant. I remembered when you said that "A world record attempt can fry the mind and legs for a really long time" - about 9 months ago. What are the circumstances besides having a rabbit, peaking, and motivation as well as the right weather conditions? Hicham had all that on his record mile. He was motivated by Morceli, he ran the mile when he was at his best, he had the experience, he had 2 people drop out of the race for him! And he also had Noah stick with him until the end. Those are the circumstances, but do you really deny that training makes the right athlete? When it comes to physical talent in the mile, I think it's highly overrated. A couple extra fast twitch fibers won't make a difference, and having a lot more fast twitch fibers would make one a freak of nature. We're built too similar for differences that great to take place. The number one reason that records are hard to break is because of fatigue. The reason one slows down by 5-6 seconds off the world record is due to fatigue. It's logic, people can't get close to 3:43 oftenly because they hit fatigue rabbits or no rabbits. Symmonds lost due to fatigue-due to his lack of experience compared to the other long-time runners. If I could live for 300 years, I can guarantee you that I can run a sub 3:30 mile. See most of it just has to do with the time. However if you're smart enough, you can increase the quality of training so time is not a factor. I did that-and hit the 4 minute range within a year from the very beginning from a standard shape what most couldn't do in 2 years. It's like playing an instrument, if you dedicate 10 hours everyday, then you'll make gains at a rate of 6 times faster than normal musicians. Running and bodybuilding on the otherhand, are more physical. The mind can be trained much much longer than the muscles can.

By the way aside from all that, it appears as if only runners of middle eastern descent own the mile and 1500m. We have Hicham, Morceli, and the new guy from Bahrain. We also had Said Aouita. If you look at the world record mile progression for men on wikipedia, you'll start to see that the runners of western descent get cut off towards the end of the IAAF era. As odd as that sounds, it gets even more odd for the women. We have Romania, Russia and peculiarly China leading. Romania won the women's marathon at Beijing, the record holder of the mile for women is Svetlana Masterkova (Russia). I think that's because white people are getting whiter and turning more towards the business life, ignoring sports. Or for the last part, ignoring running. Here's another similarity: Basketball at Beijing. U.S.A. won. Now basketball is a tactical sport, it barely has anything to do with talent or genes, but because for the pure reason that America plays basketball more, the training is also more advanced. I saw U.S.A. playing more on the tricky, flashy side, and all the other countries being at the level that the U.S. was at in the '70s. The same thing applies to running. I read one of your articles on Africans running, and it said that they train at mostly 90% of their maximum effort most of the time. Their training is more advanced. The U.S. can beat everyone in basketball, but not running?
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My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥

[Angelo Z]

Another factor is that Americans are just going in the wrong direction with training. Have you ever did something that you actually believed in, but it was actually wrong? Most of the problem comes from the coaches. My friends who were on the track team including Charles White (4:09 mile PB) had to do 400s and those types of intervals at school. Prefontaine did the same thing. Symmonds does the same think, but for an 800m that's ideal even Kipketer did the same thing. It's just that people aren't doing long intervals of 1000-2000m for the mile as ridiculous as it sounds. I tell that to Charles and he said the maximum he does are the 800s. Bekele, Haile, Hicham, Morceli all were doing those long intervals. The Moroccans have their own training system, and since all of those nations are so close together, don't expect much diversity. Let's stop mentioned world records so much, but how come today the runners that aim for their personal records are a lot faster than those from 50 years ago? Back then people like Jim Ryun worked for a 3:51-54 personal best, now people are reaching in the 3:40s. Differences in the track or shoes...not so much-not as drastic as Bannister's track and shoes.
_________________
My favorite all time race: Hicham El Guerrouj - Prefontaine Classic Mile 2002 http://youtube.com/watch?v=4YykUTHzOL8
¥London 2012 XXX Olympiad¥